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GE: WP's Chen Show Mao wants to help build strong opposition
- Thread starter Rakyat
- Start date
bro..how are you ? still visit casino ?
About Chen Show Mao: WP rebuts Forum writer
I REFER to Mr Benjamin Chow's letter ('About Chen: Time will tell'; yesterday). Mr Chow has cast aspersions on Mr Chen Show Mao, questioned his motives and concluded his letter with 'only time will tell'.
I agree that many things in life are proven by time. There is a famous adage in Chinese, lu yao zhi ma li, ri jiu jian ren xin (just as it takes a long journey to know the strength of a horse, it also takes time to know a person's real heart'). However, why does this apply only to Chen Show Mao and not to new candidates of the People's Action Party as well?
Show Mao has been in contact with the Workers' Party (WP) since 2007.
He has participated in WP's ground outreach such as (party publication) Hammer's sales and other party functions. He is not returning only when 'the pickings are ripe' as the writer alleged.
Show Mao's decision to come home and stand for election as a WP candidate should be seen in a positive light.
There is no certainty that he will win the election. He is at the peak of his career and has nothing to gain being on an opposition ticket.
We are glad we are able to attract good people today and provide a credible choice to the voters.
Show Mao's decision has helped raise the political interests of many Singaporeans including those based overseas.
It also stirred an 'apolitical 50-year-old native citizen' to write to the Forum Page.
This is indeed the positive impact Chen Show Mao has generated.
Low Thia Khiang
Secretary-General
Workers' Party
I REFER to Mr Benjamin Chow's letter ('About Chen: Time will tell'; yesterday). Mr Chow has cast aspersions on Mr Chen Show Mao, questioned his motives and concluded his letter with 'only time will tell'.
I agree that many things in life are proven by time. There is a famous adage in Chinese, lu yao zhi ma li, ri jiu jian ren xin (just as it takes a long journey to know the strength of a horse, it also takes time to know a person's real heart'). However, why does this apply only to Chen Show Mao and not to new candidates of the People's Action Party as well?
Show Mao has been in contact with the Workers' Party (WP) since 2007.
He has participated in WP's ground outreach such as (party publication) Hammer's sales and other party functions. He is not returning only when 'the pickings are ripe' as the writer alleged.
Show Mao's decision to come home and stand for election as a WP candidate should be seen in a positive light.
There is no certainty that he will win the election. He is at the peak of his career and has nothing to gain being on an opposition ticket.
We are glad we are able to attract good people today and provide a credible choice to the voters.
Show Mao's decision has helped raise the political interests of many Singaporeans including those based overseas.
It also stirred an 'apolitical 50-year-old native citizen' to write to the Forum Page.
This is indeed the positive impact Chen Show Mao has generated.
Low Thia Khiang
Secretary-General
Workers' Party
WHEN THE BIG TREE IS SHAKING n RATTLING,
all monkeys will soon be scatter n climb up OTHER TREES.
new monkeys c got ANY TREES, oso climb
all monkeys will soon be scatter n climb up OTHER TREES.
new monkeys c got ANY TREES, oso climb
About Chen Show Mao: WP rebuts Forum writer
Apr 15, 2011 - ST Forum
I REFER to Mr Benjamin Chow's letter ('About Chen: Time will tell'; yesterday). Mr Chow has cast aspersions on Mr Chen Show Mao, questioned his motives and concluded his letter with 'only time will tell'.
I agree that many things in life are proven by time. There is a famous adage in Chinese, lu yao zhi ma li, ri jiu jian ren xin (just as it takes a long journey to know the strength of a horse, it also takes time to know a person's real heart'). However, why does this apply only to Chen Show Mao and not to new candidates of the People's Action Party as well?
Show Mao has been in contact with the Workers' Party (WP) since 2007.
He has participated in WP's ground outreach such as (party publication) Hammer's sales and other party functions. He is not returning only when 'the pickings are ripe' as the writer alleged.
Show Mao's decision to come home and stand for election as a WP candidate should be seen in a positive light.
There is no certainty that he will win the election. He is at the peak of his career and has nothing to gain being on an opposition ticket.
We are glad we are able to attract good people today and provide a credible choice to the voters.
Show Mao's decision has helped raise the political interests of many Singaporeans including those based overseas.
It also stirred an 'apolitical 50-year-old native citizen' to write to the Forum Page.
This is indeed the positive impact Chen Show Mao has generated.
Low Thia Khiang
Secretary-General
Workers' Party
Apr 15, 2011 - ST Forum
I REFER to Mr Benjamin Chow's letter ('About Chen: Time will tell'; yesterday). Mr Chow has cast aspersions on Mr Chen Show Mao, questioned his motives and concluded his letter with 'only time will tell'.
I agree that many things in life are proven by time. There is a famous adage in Chinese, lu yao zhi ma li, ri jiu jian ren xin (just as it takes a long journey to know the strength of a horse, it also takes time to know a person's real heart'). However, why does this apply only to Chen Show Mao and not to new candidates of the People's Action Party as well?
Show Mao has been in contact with the Workers' Party (WP) since 2007.
He has participated in WP's ground outreach such as (party publication) Hammer's sales and other party functions. He is not returning only when 'the pickings are ripe' as the writer alleged.
Show Mao's decision to come home and stand for election as a WP candidate should be seen in a positive light.
There is no certainty that he will win the election. He is at the peak of his career and has nothing to gain being on an opposition ticket.
We are glad we are able to attract good people today and provide a credible choice to the voters.
Show Mao's decision has helped raise the political interests of many Singaporeans including those based overseas.
It also stirred an 'apolitical 50-year-old native citizen' to write to the Forum Page.
This is indeed the positive impact Chen Show Mao has generated.
Low Thia Khiang
Secretary-General
Workers' Party
Apr 15, 2011 - ST Forum
Chen Sow Mao has done his share for Singapore
MR CHEN Show Mao does not need to explain his decision as his actions have spoken louder than words ('About Chen: Time will tell' by Mr Benjamin Chow; yesterday). His resume alone is an answer but more importantly, it raises some issues our country currently grapples with.
Mr Chen served national service although he was not obliged to. Unlike Mr Chow and me who were born, bred and remain rooted in Singapore, Mr Chen was not born and was not wholly nurtured by Singapore. And yet, he chose to serve. What more do we need to ask of him?
We remember that NS was harsher then, the allowances thinner and yet, the records show Mr Chen served with distinction at the highest level possible. We have serving members of political and high office, including a People's Action Party new candidate, who became Singapore citizens but did not serve NS.
Mr Chen was the top student of his batch but never got to study the course of his choice nor was he given a scholarship. If he was given his choice of study (medicine), he would have probably spent the next 10 years studying and training here.
He was also not given a Singapore scholarship even though he showed academic and leadership qualities (he was president of an elected student council).
We have only ourselves to blame for not rooting this talent in Singapore but rather forcing him to go out into the world to make a name for himself, which he did.
Again, as we struggle with issues such as bond-breakers and foreign talent with no affinity for Singapore, we do have more pressing questions to ask before we start trying to question someone coming back with no reward in sight.
The Singapore opposition politician's life is a hard one, with nothing to gain and everything to lose - with a record that shows only sacrifice for Singapore with very little else in return.
I dare say the facts show Mr Chen in this respect to be whiter than white. Instead of questioning Mr Chen's motives, we have other more urgent matters to resolve.
Tan Suan Tiu
Chen Sow Mao has done his share for Singapore
MR CHEN Show Mao does not need to explain his decision as his actions have spoken louder than words ('About Chen: Time will tell' by Mr Benjamin Chow; yesterday). His resume alone is an answer but more importantly, it raises some issues our country currently grapples with.
Mr Chen served national service although he was not obliged to. Unlike Mr Chow and me who were born, bred and remain rooted in Singapore, Mr Chen was not born and was not wholly nurtured by Singapore. And yet, he chose to serve. What more do we need to ask of him?
We remember that NS was harsher then, the allowances thinner and yet, the records show Mr Chen served with distinction at the highest level possible. We have serving members of political and high office, including a People's Action Party new candidate, who became Singapore citizens but did not serve NS.
Mr Chen was the top student of his batch but never got to study the course of his choice nor was he given a scholarship. If he was given his choice of study (medicine), he would have probably spent the next 10 years studying and training here.
He was also not given a Singapore scholarship even though he showed academic and leadership qualities (he was president of an elected student council).
We have only ourselves to blame for not rooting this talent in Singapore but rather forcing him to go out into the world to make a name for himself, which he did.
Again, as we struggle with issues such as bond-breakers and foreign talent with no affinity for Singapore, we do have more pressing questions to ask before we start trying to question someone coming back with no reward in sight.
The Singapore opposition politician's life is a hard one, with nothing to gain and everything to lose - with a record that shows only sacrifice for Singapore with very little else in return.
I dare say the facts show Mr Chen in this respect to be whiter than white. Instead of questioning Mr Chen's motives, we have other more urgent matters to resolve.
Tan Suan Tiu
At least this so-called "FT" according to you, did his National Service. Compared with the "FTs" from the Pappies, he is definitely more Singaporean to me.
LTK's reply is sharp, focused, measured and delivered the punches in all the correct places. It definitely was well thought out, crafted and organised.
There was no need to digress to generalities, innuendoes and get bogged down in controversial language.
His reply was probably seen by his peers and modified. If what i have said is accurate, then WP deserves support.
It is the only Party with the strongest potential to upset the PAP apple cart.
Gembatte!
PS. Qualifier: I am not a WP member or activist.
There was no need to digress to generalities, innuendoes and get bogged down in controversial language.
His reply was probably seen by his peers and modified. If what i have said is accurate, then WP deserves support.
It is the only Party with the strongest potential to upset the PAP apple cart.
Gembatte!
PS. Qualifier: I am not a WP member or activist.
Last edited:
Yes, still 'working' there but not so regular the past 3 weeks coz busy with something else. Kena stopped during road blocks on Sat and Sun. Luckily, 'siamed' the Sat check. Was asked to take the test. Passed.
Chen Show Mao – changing clientele
<!-- AddThis Button Begin --><SCRIPT type=text/javascript>var addthis_product = 'wpp-254';var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true};</SCRIPT><SCRIPT type=text/javascript src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#pubid=wp-4dac3599548f891e"></SCRIPT>The following is an article published by The Business Times on 18 April 2011.
Changing clientele
Corporate lawyer Chen Show Mao, a Workers’ Party candidate in the upcoming elections, has just been honoured for his work on Agricultural Bank of China’s US$22b IPO last year. ANNA TEO reports.
IT’S easy to picture Chen Show Mao as a leading medical doctor with genteel bedside manners – which he probably would have been today had he gained admission into the local medical school after topping Singapore’s 1979 A-level examinations.
He went instead to Harvard, Oxford and Stanford – and is today a top-notch corporate lawyer in one of America’s most prestigious ‘white-shoe’ law firms, Davis Polk & Wardwell. In fact, he has just been named one of The American Lawyer’s Dealmakers of the Year for his leading role in one of the biggest and most significant deals of 2010, the US$22.1 billion initial public offering (IPO) of Agricultural Bank of China Ltd – which was a highly complex dual listing, to boot.
The bank wanted to raise a huge amount of money, very quickly, and in both domestic and international capital markets. It was a tall order, but the lawyer they turned to, Mr Chen, then based in Beijing, is well versed in such dual listings. In 2006, he led a Davis Polk team that advised China’s biggest bank, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Limited, in what was then the world’s biggest IPO – US$21 billion in size – and the first to be listed in both Hong Kong and Shanghai.
Still, for AgBank’s complex IPO of historic size, Mr Chen and his team found themselves working under what he would later describe as some of ‘the most challenging circumstances I have seen’, including just a three-month window to get the IPO to market by July 2010.
Herding cats
Speaking to BT last week, Mr Chen said: ‘The ‘trickiest’ part was how to manage the execution process that involved a record number of participants – 11 lead underwriters and two financial advisers, and those were just the investment banks – in order to meet an unprecedented highly compressed timetable, made all the more challenging by the bank’s preference to defer a clear allocation of the underwriters’ rewards and responsibilities until the last practicable moment, even after the execution process had commenced. It was like herding cats.’
When it was launched last July, the AgBank IPO was the world’s biggest ever – a record which stood until November, when General Motors’ offering raised US$23 billion.
On the latest honours for his work, he said: ‘It is always gratifying to receive recognition for one’s professional accomplishments. We had a large team of lawyers and other colleagues spanning three continents working around the clock on the (AgBank) IPO. It would have been perfect if the accolade had gone to all of us.’
The Taiwan-born Singaporean – who took up citizenship in 1986, six years after serving national service – joined Davis Polk’s New York office in 1992 after receiving his law doctorate from Stanford. He moved to the firm’s Hong Kong office in 1999, became a partner the following year, and has, since 2007, been based in Beijing, where he is now managing partner of Davis Polk’s Beijing office. He has advised various Greater China corporations on major cross-border investments and securities offerings.
The ‘dealmaker’ accolade has perhaps come at a fitting time, as it doesn’t look likely that Mr Chen will be deeply involved in massive capital market transactions in the Greater China region in the near future, given his decision to relocate back to Singapore, where he grew up from the age of 11.
At 50, ‘in the second half of my life’, after years of helping corporate clients close business deals, he has embarked on a new mission, focusing on the needs and interests of a new ‘clientele’ of fellow citizens. The father of three is trading business suits for the light blue colours of the Workers’ Party, for his new job of helping to build up a strong, credible opposition in Singapore.
The specifics around just how he might continue his current China-focused US legal practice out of Singapore remain to be sorted out. ‘Whether or not I get elected, it is quite clear that I will not continue practising law the way I have, since time and effort will be required to serve constituents if elected, and to assist with party matters and prepare for future elections in any case.’
Family and friends, as well as former schoolmates and teachers who remember him as an outstanding model student in Catholic High, Anglo-Chinese School and National Junior College, were mostly surprised by his decision to enter politics on the opposition platform.
There have been ‘a lot of moral support but also some degree of concern’, he added. ‘Most of them feel, as my family does, that this work that I’ve chosen to take on is both arduous and uncertain.’
Asked how he would compare his challenges ahead with the demands of pulling off a complex IPO, Mr Chen said: ‘At the beginning, the tasks both appear daunting, the circumstances trying and the challenges seemingly unsurmountable. You learn to put your head down and work away at it, one step at a time, while keeping a large group of people together on more-or-less the same track.’
Keen interest
He had a keen interest in public matters as a student and, ‘like most people’, had been focused on his career as a young lawyer. But over time, ‘this sense grew stronger – that I really should be giving back something to society for everything that I have received, which has been a lot’, he said. ‘I attended schools, for example, with good teachers and the help of scholarships and financial aid from the different universities and from benefactors such as Cecil Rhodes.’
After earning an economics degree from Harvard in 1986, Mr Chen went to Oxford to study languages and history, and later jurisprudence, as a Rhodes scholar.
‘And I think it’s fair to say that all of them (teachers, benefactors, donors) probably had hopes and expectations that I will one day in turn make contributions to society. And for me, this is my community, Singapore.’
During his years abroad over the last three decades, he had been back regularly to see his parents, his sister and her family. In the past five years, it had been four or five visits a year. And while mulling over which political party to join, he dropped in at the Workers’ Party headquarters in Syed Alwi Road in 2007, and found, over a period of time, a meeting of minds on their shared goals for Singapore. He also kept in contact with party members who lived in Shanghai and Hong Kong, he said.
In recent weeks, he has been on almost daily house visits in the Aljunied, East Coast and Kallang-Moulmein GRC districts.
People have given him lots of encouragement, he said. They have handed him drinks, wrote him poems – ‘to encourage us on’ – and even offered ‘fashion tips’, he said, laughing. ‘Like trying different hair cuts and glasses.’
And people would need to come forward for the opposition in greater numbers, he said, ‘before we can talk about reaching our long-term goal’, which is to grow the opposition into a ‘rational, responsible and respectable presence in Parliament’ that is capable of forming an alternative government.
For himself, ‘my hope is that by standing for election, I will encourage more people to come forward, and make it more acceptable to Singaporeans for their sons and daughters to serve the country in opposition politics’.
<!-- AddThis Button Begin --><SCRIPT type=text/javascript>var addthis_product = 'wpp-254';var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true};</SCRIPT><SCRIPT type=text/javascript src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#pubid=wp-4dac3599548f891e"></SCRIPT>The following is an article published by The Business Times on 18 April 2011.
Changing clientele
Corporate lawyer Chen Show Mao, a Workers’ Party candidate in the upcoming elections, has just been honoured for his work on Agricultural Bank of China’s US$22b IPO last year. ANNA TEO reports.
IT’S easy to picture Chen Show Mao as a leading medical doctor with genteel bedside manners – which he probably would have been today had he gained admission into the local medical school after topping Singapore’s 1979 A-level examinations.
He went instead to Harvard, Oxford and Stanford – and is today a top-notch corporate lawyer in one of America’s most prestigious ‘white-shoe’ law firms, Davis Polk & Wardwell. In fact, he has just been named one of The American Lawyer’s Dealmakers of the Year for his leading role in one of the biggest and most significant deals of 2010, the US$22.1 billion initial public offering (IPO) of Agricultural Bank of China Ltd – which was a highly complex dual listing, to boot.The bank wanted to raise a huge amount of money, very quickly, and in both domestic and international capital markets. It was a tall order, but the lawyer they turned to, Mr Chen, then based in Beijing, is well versed in such dual listings. In 2006, he led a Davis Polk team that advised China’s biggest bank, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Limited, in what was then the world’s biggest IPO – US$21 billion in size – and the first to be listed in both Hong Kong and Shanghai.
Still, for AgBank’s complex IPO of historic size, Mr Chen and his team found themselves working under what he would later describe as some of ‘the most challenging circumstances I have seen’, including just a three-month window to get the IPO to market by July 2010.
Herding cats
Speaking to BT last week, Mr Chen said: ‘The ‘trickiest’ part was how to manage the execution process that involved a record number of participants – 11 lead underwriters and two financial advisers, and those were just the investment banks – in order to meet an unprecedented highly compressed timetable, made all the more challenging by the bank’s preference to defer a clear allocation of the underwriters’ rewards and responsibilities until the last practicable moment, even after the execution process had commenced. It was like herding cats.’
When it was launched last July, the AgBank IPO was the world’s biggest ever – a record which stood until November, when General Motors’ offering raised US$23 billion.
On the latest honours for his work, he said: ‘It is always gratifying to receive recognition for one’s professional accomplishments. We had a large team of lawyers and other colleagues spanning three continents working around the clock on the (AgBank) IPO. It would have been perfect if the accolade had gone to all of us.’
The Taiwan-born Singaporean – who took up citizenship in 1986, six years after serving national service – joined Davis Polk’s New York office in 1992 after receiving his law doctorate from Stanford. He moved to the firm’s Hong Kong office in 1999, became a partner the following year, and has, since 2007, been based in Beijing, where he is now managing partner of Davis Polk’s Beijing office. He has advised various Greater China corporations on major cross-border investments and securities offerings.
The ‘dealmaker’ accolade has perhaps come at a fitting time, as it doesn’t look likely that Mr Chen will be deeply involved in massive capital market transactions in the Greater China region in the near future, given his decision to relocate back to Singapore, where he grew up from the age of 11.
At 50, ‘in the second half of my life’, after years of helping corporate clients close business deals, he has embarked on a new mission, focusing on the needs and interests of a new ‘clientele’ of fellow citizens. The father of three is trading business suits for the light blue colours of the Workers’ Party, for his new job of helping to build up a strong, credible opposition in Singapore.
The specifics around just how he might continue his current China-focused US legal practice out of Singapore remain to be sorted out. ‘Whether or not I get elected, it is quite clear that I will not continue practising law the way I have, since time and effort will be required to serve constituents if elected, and to assist with party matters and prepare for future elections in any case.’
Family and friends, as well as former schoolmates and teachers who remember him as an outstanding model student in Catholic High, Anglo-Chinese School and National Junior College, were mostly surprised by his decision to enter politics on the opposition platform.
There have been ‘a lot of moral support but also some degree of concern’, he added. ‘Most of them feel, as my family does, that this work that I’ve chosen to take on is both arduous and uncertain.’
Asked how he would compare his challenges ahead with the demands of pulling off a complex IPO, Mr Chen said: ‘At the beginning, the tasks both appear daunting, the circumstances trying and the challenges seemingly unsurmountable. You learn to put your head down and work away at it, one step at a time, while keeping a large group of people together on more-or-less the same track.’
Keen interest
He had a keen interest in public matters as a student and, ‘like most people’, had been focused on his career as a young lawyer. But over time, ‘this sense grew stronger – that I really should be giving back something to society for everything that I have received, which has been a lot’, he said. ‘I attended schools, for example, with good teachers and the help of scholarships and financial aid from the different universities and from benefactors such as Cecil Rhodes.’
After earning an economics degree from Harvard in 1986, Mr Chen went to Oxford to study languages and history, and later jurisprudence, as a Rhodes scholar.
‘And I think it’s fair to say that all of them (teachers, benefactors, donors) probably had hopes and expectations that I will one day in turn make contributions to society. And for me, this is my community, Singapore.’
During his years abroad over the last three decades, he had been back regularly to see his parents, his sister and her family. In the past five years, it had been four or five visits a year. And while mulling over which political party to join, he dropped in at the Workers’ Party headquarters in Syed Alwi Road in 2007, and found, over a period of time, a meeting of minds on their shared goals for Singapore. He also kept in contact with party members who lived in Shanghai and Hong Kong, he said.
In recent weeks, he has been on almost daily house visits in the Aljunied, East Coast and Kallang-Moulmein GRC districts.
People have given him lots of encouragement, he said. They have handed him drinks, wrote him poems – ‘to encourage us on’ – and even offered ‘fashion tips’, he said, laughing. ‘Like trying different hair cuts and glasses.’
And people would need to come forward for the opposition in greater numbers, he said, ‘before we can talk about reaching our long-term goal’, which is to grow the opposition into a ‘rational, responsible and respectable presence in Parliament’ that is capable of forming an alternative government.
For himself, ‘my hope is that by standing for election, I will encourage more people to come forward, and make it more acceptable to Singaporeans for their sons and daughters to serve the country in opposition politics’.
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Chen Show Mao – changing clientele
<!-- AddThis Button Begin --><SCRIPT type=text/javascript>var addthis_product = 'wpp-254';var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true};</SCRIPT><SCRIPT type=text/javascript src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#pubid=wp-4dac3599548f891e"></SCRIPT>The following is an article published by The Business Times on 18 April 2011.
Changing clientele
Corporate lawyer Chen Show Mao, a Workers’ Party candidate in the upcoming elections, has just been honoured for his work on Agricultural Bank of China’s US$22b IPO last year. ANNA TEO reports.
IT’S easy to picture Chen Show Mao as a leading medical doctor with genteel bedside manners – which he probably would have been today had he gained admission into the local medical school after topping Singapore’s 1979 A-level examinations.
He went instead to Harvard, Oxford and Stanford – and is today a top-notch corporate lawyer in one of America’s most prestigious ‘white-shoe’ law firms, Davis Polk & Wardwell. In fact, he has just been named one of The American Lawyer’s Dealmakers of the Year for his leading role in one of the biggest and most significant deals of 2010, the US$22.1 billion initial public offering (IPO) of Agricultural Bank of China Ltd – which was a highly complex dual listing, to boot.
The bank wanted to raise a huge amount of money, very quickly, and in both domestic and international capital markets. It was a tall order, but the lawyer they turned to, Mr Chen, then based in Beijing, is well versed in such dual listings. In 2006, he led a Davis Polk team that advised China’s biggest bank, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Limited, in what was then the world’s biggest IPO – US$21 billion in size – and the first to be listed in both Hong Kong and Shanghai.
Still, for AgBank’s complex IPO of historic size, Mr Chen and his team found themselves working under what he would later describe as some of ‘the most challenging circumstances I have seen’, including just a three-month window to get the IPO to market by July 2010.
Herding cats
Speaking to BT last week, Mr Chen said: ‘The ‘trickiest’ part was how to manage the execution process that involved a record number of participants – 11 lead underwriters and two financial advisers, and those were just the investment banks – in order to meet an unprecedented highly compressed timetable, made all the more challenging by the bank’s preference to defer a clear allocation of the underwriters’ rewards and responsibilities until the last practicable moment, even after the execution process had commenced. It was like herding cats.’
When it was launched last July, the AgBank IPO was the world’s biggest ever – a record which stood until November, when General Motors’ offering raised US$23 billion.
On the latest honours for his work, he said: ‘It is always gratifying to receive recognition for one’s professional accomplishments. We had a large team of lawyers and other colleagues spanning three continents working around the clock on the (AgBank) IPO. It would have been perfect if the accolade had gone to all of us.’
The Taiwan-born Singaporean – who took up citizenship in 1986, six years after serving national service – joined Davis Polk’s New York office in 1992 after receiving his law doctorate from Stanford. He moved to the firm’s Hong Kong office in 1999, became a partner the following year, and has, since 2007, been based in Beijing, where he is now managing partner of Davis Polk’s Beijing office. He has advised various Greater China corporations on major cross-border investments and securities offerings.
The ‘dealmaker’ accolade has perhaps come at a fitting time, as it doesn’t look likely that Mr Chen will be deeply involved in massive capital market transactions in the Greater China region in the near future, given his decision to relocate back to Singapore, where he grew up from the age of 11.
At 50, ‘in the second half of my life’, after years of helping corporate clients close business deals, he has embarked on a new mission, focusing on the needs and interests of a new ‘clientele’ of fellow citizens. The father of three is trading business suits for the light blue colours of the Workers’ Party, for his new job of helping to build up a strong, credible opposition in Singapore.
The specifics around just how he might continue his current China-focused US legal practice out of Singapore remain to be sorted out. ‘Whether or not I get elected, it is quite clear that I will not continue practising law the way I have, since time and effort will be required to serve constituents if elected, and to assist with party matters and prepare for future elections in any case.’
Family and friends, as well as former schoolmates and teachers who remember him as an outstanding model student in Catholic High, Anglo-Chinese School and National Junior College, were mostly surprised by his decision to enter politics on the opposition platform.
There have been ‘a lot of moral support but also some degree of concern’, he added. ‘Most of them feel, as my family does, that this work that I’ve chosen to take on is both arduous and uncertain.’
Asked how he would compare his challenges ahead with the demands of pulling off a complex IPO, Mr Chen said: ‘At the beginning, the tasks both appear daunting, the circumstances trying and the challenges seemingly unsurmountable. You learn to put your head down and work away at it, one step at a time, while keeping a large group of people together on more-or-less the same track.’
Keen interest
He had a keen interest in public matters as a student and, ‘like most people’, had been focused on his career as a young lawyer. But over time, ‘this sense grew stronger – that I really should be giving back something to society for everything that I have received, which has been a lot’, he said. ‘I attended schools, for example, with good teachers and the help of scholarships and financial aid from the different universities and from benefactors such as Cecil Rhodes.’
After earning an economics degree from Harvard in 1986, Mr Chen went to Oxford to study languages and history, and later jurisprudence, as a Rhodes scholar.
‘And I think it’s fair to say that all of them (teachers, benefactors, donors) probably had hopes and expectations that I will one day in turn make contributions to society. And for me, this is my community, Singapore.’
During his years abroad over the last three decades, he had been back regularly to see his parents, his sister and her family. In the past five years, it had been four or five visits a year. And while mulling over which political party to join, he dropped in at the Workers’ Party headquarters in Syed Alwi Road in 2007, and found, over a period of time, a meeting of minds on their shared goals for Singapore. He also kept in contact with party members who lived in Shanghai and Hong Kong, he said.
In recent weeks, he has been on almost daily house visits in the Aljunied, East Coast and Kallang-Moulmein GRC districts.
People have given him lots of encouragement, he said. They have handed him drinks, wrote him poems – ‘to encourage us on’ – and even offered ‘fashion tips’, he said, laughing. ‘Like trying different hair cuts and glasses.’
And people would need to come forward for the opposition in greater numbers, he said, ‘before we can talk about reaching our long-term goal’, which is to grow the opposition into a ‘rational, responsible and respectable presence in Parliament’ that is capable of forming an alternative government.
For himself, ‘my hope is that by standing for election, I will encourage more people to come forward, and make it more acceptable to Singaporeans for their sons and daughters to serve the country in opposition politics’.
Chen Show Mao – changing clientele
<!-- AddThis Button Begin --><SCRIPT type=text/javascript>var addthis_product = 'wpp-254';var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true};</SCRIPT><SCRIPT type=text/javascript src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#pubid=wp-4dac3599548f891e"></SCRIPT>The following is an article published by The Business Times on 18 April 2011.
Changing clientele
Corporate lawyer Chen Show Mao, a Workers’ Party candidate in the upcoming elections, has just been honoured for his work on Agricultural Bank of China’s US$22b IPO last year. ANNA TEO reports.
IT’S easy to picture Chen Show Mao as a leading medical doctor with genteel bedside manners – which he probably would have been today had he gained admission into the local medical school after topping Singapore’s 1979 A-level examinations.
He went instead to Harvard, Oxford and Stanford – and is today a top-notch corporate lawyer in one of America’s most prestigious ‘white-shoe’ law firms, Davis Polk & Wardwell. In fact, he has just been named one of The American Lawyer’s Dealmakers of the Year for his leading role in one of the biggest and most significant deals of 2010, the US$22.1 billion initial public offering (IPO) of Agricultural Bank of China Ltd – which was a highly complex dual listing, to boot.The bank wanted to raise a huge amount of money, very quickly, and in both domestic and international capital markets. It was a tall order, but the lawyer they turned to, Mr Chen, then based in Beijing, is well versed in such dual listings. In 2006, he led a Davis Polk team that advised China’s biggest bank, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Limited, in what was then the world’s biggest IPO – US$21 billion in size – and the first to be listed in both Hong Kong and Shanghai.
Still, for AgBank’s complex IPO of historic size, Mr Chen and his team found themselves working under what he would later describe as some of ‘the most challenging circumstances I have seen’, including just a three-month window to get the IPO to market by July 2010.
Herding cats
Speaking to BT last week, Mr Chen said: ‘The ‘trickiest’ part was how to manage the execution process that involved a record number of participants – 11 lead underwriters and two financial advisers, and those were just the investment banks – in order to meet an unprecedented highly compressed timetable, made all the more challenging by the bank’s preference to defer a clear allocation of the underwriters’ rewards and responsibilities until the last practicable moment, even after the execution process had commenced. It was like herding cats.’
When it was launched last July, the AgBank IPO was the world’s biggest ever – a record which stood until November, when General Motors’ offering raised US$23 billion.
On the latest honours for his work, he said: ‘It is always gratifying to receive recognition for one’s professional accomplishments. We had a large team of lawyers and other colleagues spanning three continents working around the clock on the (AgBank) IPO. It would have been perfect if the accolade had gone to all of us.’
The Taiwan-born Singaporean – who took up citizenship in 1986, six years after serving national service – joined Davis Polk’s New York office in 1992 after receiving his law doctorate from Stanford. He moved to the firm’s Hong Kong office in 1999, became a partner the following year, and has, since 2007, been based in Beijing, where he is now managing partner of Davis Polk’s Beijing office. He has advised various Greater China corporations on major cross-border investments and securities offerings.
The ‘dealmaker’ accolade has perhaps come at a fitting time, as it doesn’t look likely that Mr Chen will be deeply involved in massive capital market transactions in the Greater China region in the near future, given his decision to relocate back to Singapore, where he grew up from the age of 11.
At 50, ‘in the second half of my life’, after years of helping corporate clients close business deals, he has embarked on a new mission, focusing on the needs and interests of a new ‘clientele’ of fellow citizens. The father of three is trading business suits for the light blue colours of the Workers’ Party, for his new job of helping to build up a strong, credible opposition in Singapore.
The specifics around just how he might continue his current China-focused US legal practice out of Singapore remain to be sorted out. ‘Whether or not I get elected, it is quite clear that I will not continue practising law the way I have, since time and effort will be required to serve constituents if elected, and to assist with party matters and prepare for future elections in any case.’
Family and friends, as well as former schoolmates and teachers who remember him as an outstanding model student in Catholic High, Anglo-Chinese School and National Junior College, were mostly surprised by his decision to enter politics on the opposition platform.
There have been ‘a lot of moral support but also some degree of concern’, he added. ‘Most of them feel, as my family does, that this work that I’ve chosen to take on is both arduous and uncertain.’
Asked how he would compare his challenges ahead with the demands of pulling off a complex IPO, Mr Chen said: ‘At the beginning, the tasks both appear daunting, the circumstances trying and the challenges seemingly unsurmountable. You learn to put your head down and work away at it, one step at a time, while keeping a large group of people together on more-or-less the same track.’
Keen interest
He had a keen interest in public matters as a student and, ‘like most people’, had been focused on his career as a young lawyer. But over time, ‘this sense grew stronger – that I really should be giving back something to society for everything that I have received, which has been a lot’, he said. ‘I attended schools, for example, with good teachers and the help of scholarships and financial aid from the different universities and from benefactors such as Cecil Rhodes.’
After earning an economics degree from Harvard in 1986, Mr Chen went to Oxford to study languages and history, and later jurisprudence, as a Rhodes scholar.
‘And I think it’s fair to say that all of them (teachers, benefactors, donors) probably had hopes and expectations that I will one day in turn make contributions to society. And for me, this is my community, Singapore.’
During his years abroad over the last three decades, he had been back regularly to see his parents, his sister and her family. In the past five years, it had been four or five visits a year. And while mulling over which political party to join, he dropped in at the Workers’ Party headquarters in Syed Alwi Road in 2007, and found, over a period of time, a meeting of minds on their shared goals for Singapore. He also kept in contact with party members who lived in Shanghai and Hong Kong, he said.
In recent weeks, he has been on almost daily house visits in the Aljunied, East Coast and Kallang-Moulmein GRC districts.
People have given him lots of encouragement, he said. They have handed him drinks, wrote him poems – ‘to encourage us on’ – and even offered ‘fashion tips’, he said, laughing. ‘Like trying different hair cuts and glasses.’
And people would need to come forward for the opposition in greater numbers, he said, ‘before we can talk about reaching our long-term goal’, which is to grow the opposition into a ‘rational, responsible and respectable presence in Parliament’ that is capable of forming an alternative government.
For himself, ‘my hope is that by standing for election, I will encourage more people to come forward, and make it more acceptable to Singaporeans for their sons and daughters to serve the country in opposition politics’.
The Business Times
18 April 2011
Taking the first baby steps forward
CHEN Show Mao has a ‘very pragmatic’ response to the argument that a multi-party political system is potentially divisive and inefficient.
‘I’m just focused on what it is we can do to get the government to be more responsive to people’s needs, to different voices out there. For me, it’s simple: 82-2 is too much one-party dominance for our good.’
He adds: ‘Do we say, oh, because there could be potential problems with inefficiency when you get to a coalition government situation, and so that should stop us from taking the first, baby steps forward, to go from 82-2?’
The ultimate goal is to help improve people’s lives, says the Workers’ Party candidate. And the first steps are to build a credible opposition that can one day form an alternative government, and provide ‘real checks and balances’ on the government through competition, he says.
There will then be ‘less danger of policies being rushed through with little debate and transparency’, he says, citing the big influx of foreign workers in recent years, ‘presumably to drive economic growth but apparently without regard to productivity gains’, that has had impact on almost every sphere of life, from jobs, housing, schools, transportation to living space. ‘When did we decide as a country that we would pay the price for this type of growth? That arguably was the most important policy over the last few years but when was the debate?’
Mr Chen adds: ‘In the debate on ministerial salaries, the opposition MPs raised good points in my view. I thought Sylvia Lim’s speech was stirring, but it was as if minds were already made up.’
To him, the question is: ‘Over the long term, where do we want to be?’ Even today, ‘the government says: ‘If you don’t like us, you can vote us out’. But can we do that? I mean, most Singaporeans feel that we don’t have an opposition that’s capable of forming an alternative government right now. We’ve been operating at 82-2 . . . So we have no choice in effect, and if we would like to give ourselves that choice and better governance as a result – it takes time, and it costs! We’d need to be prepared to cast some votes for opposition candidates, to give them opportunities, and hopefully they will develop and come through in the long run.’
It’s ‘like bringing up children’, he quips.
‘Is that the direction in which we want to go, I think, is the debate. And I’m squarely on one side of it – I think yes.’
Read also: Chen Show Mao in The American Lawyer’s Dealmakers Of The Year.
18 April 2011
Taking the first baby steps forward
CHEN Show Mao has a ‘very pragmatic’ response to the argument that a multi-party political system is potentially divisive and inefficient.
‘I’m just focused on what it is we can do to get the government to be more responsive to people’s needs, to different voices out there. For me, it’s simple: 82-2 is too much one-party dominance for our good.’
He adds: ‘Do we say, oh, because there could be potential problems with inefficiency when you get to a coalition government situation, and so that should stop us from taking the first, baby steps forward, to go from 82-2?’
The ultimate goal is to help improve people’s lives, says the Workers’ Party candidate. And the first steps are to build a credible opposition that can one day form an alternative government, and provide ‘real checks and balances’ on the government through competition, he says.
There will then be ‘less danger of policies being rushed through with little debate and transparency’, he says, citing the big influx of foreign workers in recent years, ‘presumably to drive economic growth but apparently without regard to productivity gains’, that has had impact on almost every sphere of life, from jobs, housing, schools, transportation to living space. ‘When did we decide as a country that we would pay the price for this type of growth? That arguably was the most important policy over the last few years but when was the debate?’
Mr Chen adds: ‘In the debate on ministerial salaries, the opposition MPs raised good points in my view. I thought Sylvia Lim’s speech was stirring, but it was as if minds were already made up.’
To him, the question is: ‘Over the long term, where do we want to be?’ Even today, ‘the government says: ‘If you don’t like us, you can vote us out’. But can we do that? I mean, most Singaporeans feel that we don’t have an opposition that’s capable of forming an alternative government right now. We’ve been operating at 82-2 . . . So we have no choice in effect, and if we would like to give ourselves that choice and better governance as a result – it takes time, and it costs! We’d need to be prepared to cast some votes for opposition candidates, to give them opportunities, and hopefully they will develop and come through in the long run.’
It’s ‘like bringing up children’, he quips.
‘Is that the direction in which we want to go, I think, is the debate. And I’m squarely on one side of it – I think yes.’
Read also: Chen Show Mao in The American Lawyer’s Dealmakers Of The Year.
From The American Lawyer: Dealmakers of the Year
Irene Plagianos, Drew Combs, D.M. Levine, and Ross Todd All Articles
The Asian Lawyer
April 11, 2011
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Show-Mao Chen
Photo: Paul Godwin
This month The American Lawyer announced its picks for Dealmakers of the Year--the lawyers who worked on the biggest and most significant deals of 2010. Four of the 15 transactions spotlighted involved Asian companies--no surprise to anyone who's been watching dealflows recently.
From the massive Chinese IPOs by American International Assurance and Agricultural Bank to Zhejiang Geely's purchase of Volvo Car Corporation to the biggest project financing in history, each of these transactions showcases Asia's growing economic power and the bigger roles for lawyers there. Here's the inside story of those deals.
DEAL IN BRIEF: AgBank IPO
Dealmaker: Show-Mao Chen, Davis Polk & Wardwell
Value: $22.1 Billion
Firm's Role: Issuer's Counsel
For a business with something of a dowdy reputation, Agricultural Bank of China Limited--that nation's third-largest lender--had some big ambitions when it decided to go public last year. It wanted to raise a lot of money, perhaps a record amount, despite the global economic crisis. It wanted to move quickly. And--perhaps trickiest of all--it wanted a dual listing, on both the Shanghai Stock Exchange, which trades only in China, and the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, which trades internationally.
To pull it off, the bank, known colloquially as AgBank, turned to a lawyer with plenty of experience with dual listings--Davis Polk & Wardwell's Show-Mao Chen. Four years earlier, Chen, who is based in Beijing, led a Davis Polk team that advised China's biggest bank, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Limited (ICBC), in its initial public offering. That IPO raised $19 billion, making it the world's largest at the time; it was also the first entity to list shares in Shanghai and Hong Kong.
Dual listings are difficult because each exchange has different sets of regulatory requirements related to disclosure, timing, and underwriting practices. These issues can become especially complicated in a large offering.
So Chen and his team began working under what he calls some of "the most challenging circumstances I have seen" so AgBank's IPO could launch in both markets. By April 2010, the bank had lined up ten lead underwriters, a record number--four for Shanghai and six for Hong Kong. It would fall to the Davis Polk lawyers to manage the various opinions of the underwriters and smoothly incorporate them into the prospectus.
Time constraints increased the pressure. There was talk about other Chinese banks that wanted to go public in 2010, and AgBank wanted to ensure that it would be the first in line. The bank wanted to get the IPO to market by July, giving Chen just a three-month window. "Three months is just about the shortest time to market I've seen for an IPO of this kind," he says. "And it certainly felt like it was done in record time."
Chen had teams of lawyers camped out in Davis Polk's Beijing office to keep up with the demanding pace. Meetings were conducted in both En_glish and Chinese, and all of the documents were drafted in both languages, often doubling the lawyers' work.
Antony Dapiran, a former Freshfields Bruck_haus Deringer partner who worked as AgBank's Hong Kong counsel on the IPO, credits Chen with shepherding a "very complex IPO, done on a very compressed timetable, while managing the many parties involved." (Dapiran left Freshfields after the IPO and is now a partner at Davis Polk.)
Finally, there was the hipness factor: AgBank didn't have much. Because it specializes in agricultural loans, which usually have lower profit margins than other sorts of loans, AgBank had long been called the ugly sister of Chinese state banks, Chen says. That meant that the key to pulling off the IPO was emphasizing the bank's potential for growth. (Chen calls it the "glass half-full" view of the bank.) While its loan margins were small, for example, AgBank had the largest network of banks in China, most of them outside the country's largest cities. So in the prospectus, Chen highlighted the "substantial potential for economic growth" in these rural areas. "We were able to sharpen the focus of the bank's disclosure for investors," he says. "That was crucial."
Their work paid off. When the IPO went to market, it raised $22 billion, a record amount that surpassed the sum raised by ICBC four years earlier. Because the IPO had been priced in China, not overseas, as is more customary, "in a way, this IPO was like a coming-out party for China," Chen says. "It feels like China has really arrived on the international market."
AgBank's record stood for only a few months, until November, when the American IPO that relaunched General Motors Company raised $23 billion. But on July 6, at least, the ugly sister was finally the star of the show
Irene Plagianos, Drew Combs, D.M. Levine, and Ross Todd All Articles
The Asian Lawyer
April 11, 2011
Twitterdel.icio.us DiggRedditGoogle BookmarksNewsvineLinkedInMixxStumbleupon
PrintShareEmailReprints & PermissionsPost a Comment
Show-Mao Chen
Photo: Paul Godwin
This month The American Lawyer announced its picks for Dealmakers of the Year--the lawyers who worked on the biggest and most significant deals of 2010. Four of the 15 transactions spotlighted involved Asian companies--no surprise to anyone who's been watching dealflows recently.
From the massive Chinese IPOs by American International Assurance and Agricultural Bank to Zhejiang Geely's purchase of Volvo Car Corporation to the biggest project financing in history, each of these transactions showcases Asia's growing economic power and the bigger roles for lawyers there. Here's the inside story of those deals.
DEAL IN BRIEF: AgBank IPO
Dealmaker: Show-Mao Chen, Davis Polk & Wardwell
Value: $22.1 Billion
Firm's Role: Issuer's Counsel
For a business with something of a dowdy reputation, Agricultural Bank of China Limited--that nation's third-largest lender--had some big ambitions when it decided to go public last year. It wanted to raise a lot of money, perhaps a record amount, despite the global economic crisis. It wanted to move quickly. And--perhaps trickiest of all--it wanted a dual listing, on both the Shanghai Stock Exchange, which trades only in China, and the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, which trades internationally.
To pull it off, the bank, known colloquially as AgBank, turned to a lawyer with plenty of experience with dual listings--Davis Polk & Wardwell's Show-Mao Chen. Four years earlier, Chen, who is based in Beijing, led a Davis Polk team that advised China's biggest bank, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Limited (ICBC), in its initial public offering. That IPO raised $19 billion, making it the world's largest at the time; it was also the first entity to list shares in Shanghai and Hong Kong.
Dual listings are difficult because each exchange has different sets of regulatory requirements related to disclosure, timing, and underwriting practices. These issues can become especially complicated in a large offering.
So Chen and his team began working under what he calls some of "the most challenging circumstances I have seen" so AgBank's IPO could launch in both markets. By April 2010, the bank had lined up ten lead underwriters, a record number--four for Shanghai and six for Hong Kong. It would fall to the Davis Polk lawyers to manage the various opinions of the underwriters and smoothly incorporate them into the prospectus.
Time constraints increased the pressure. There was talk about other Chinese banks that wanted to go public in 2010, and AgBank wanted to ensure that it would be the first in line. The bank wanted to get the IPO to market by July, giving Chen just a three-month window. "Three months is just about the shortest time to market I've seen for an IPO of this kind," he says. "And it certainly felt like it was done in record time."
Chen had teams of lawyers camped out in Davis Polk's Beijing office to keep up with the demanding pace. Meetings were conducted in both En_glish and Chinese, and all of the documents were drafted in both languages, often doubling the lawyers' work.
Antony Dapiran, a former Freshfields Bruck_haus Deringer partner who worked as AgBank's Hong Kong counsel on the IPO, credits Chen with shepherding a "very complex IPO, done on a very compressed timetable, while managing the many parties involved." (Dapiran left Freshfields after the IPO and is now a partner at Davis Polk.)
Finally, there was the hipness factor: AgBank didn't have much. Because it specializes in agricultural loans, which usually have lower profit margins than other sorts of loans, AgBank had long been called the ugly sister of Chinese state banks, Chen says. That meant that the key to pulling off the IPO was emphasizing the bank's potential for growth. (Chen calls it the "glass half-full" view of the bank.) While its loan margins were small, for example, AgBank had the largest network of banks in China, most of them outside the country's largest cities. So in the prospectus, Chen highlighted the "substantial potential for economic growth" in these rural areas. "We were able to sharpen the focus of the bank's disclosure for investors," he says. "That was crucial."
Their work paid off. When the IPO went to market, it raised $22 billion, a record amount that surpassed the sum raised by ICBC four years earlier. Because the IPO had been priced in China, not overseas, as is more customary, "in a way, this IPO was like a coming-out party for China," Chen says. "It feels like China has really arrived on the international market."
AgBank's record stood for only a few months, until November, when the American IPO that relaunched General Motors Company raised $23 billion. But on July 6, at least, the ugly sister was finally the star of the show
GE: WP defends Chen Show Mao's commitment
SINGAPORE: The Workers' Party said its candidate Chen Show Mao has enough in terms of commitment and local connection, having attended schools here and done National Service as an Infantry Officer.
WP Chairman Sylvia Lim was responding to a forum letter from Education Minister and PAP Organising Secretary, Dr Ng Eng Hen - questioning Mr Chen's commitment and motivations.
She added that Mr Chen's parents have been here since 1972, and he has kept in touch with Singapore, coming back four to five times a year.
She said: "For example, he's serving on the SMU Law School advisory board. So since 2007, four years ago till now, he's been in touch with WP, our activities and also coming back and learning more about how he can contribute.
"He's also made known to the public that his wife and children will be moving back permanently to Singapore with him and that he intends to carry on his political work in Singapore regardless of the outcome of the GE."
Ms Lim also responded to the PAP's Ms Indranee Rajah's criticism on the WP's vision of a first world parliament.
"She mentioned that we said that our vision of a first world parliament is not modelled after any particular country and she finds it astonishing. But I am surprised that she finds it astonishing. The PAP itself has always claimed itself to be a first world government and I do not believe they claim to model themselves after any particular government of a developed country."
"In fact, they like to claim that they would be a model for others to follow. So similarly for (the) Workers' Party, our vision of a first world parliament, we've explained in detail, is one where we have (a) opposition party performing a robust check function in the house itself.
"And it doesn't have to be similar to any other country's parliament, so long as it works for Singapore and it is effective for accountability. I think that's the most important thing."
Ms Lim added that the Workers' Party has always said it puts national interest before the party's.
"I mean Ms Rajah mentions that she doesn't think it's possible for any opposition party to act other than in their own party's interest. But let's not forget that the People's Action Party was once an opposition before, so is she saying that at that time, the PAP also did not act in the national interest?"
When asked about the timing of the letters from the PAP, she said: "I think they are looking towards the campaign and perhaps how Singaporeans might support the Workers' Party or otherwise. So they would want to shape public opinion in their own fashion.
"But I think it's important for Singaporeans to look at the facts and look at our candidates in terms of what they have been doing and how they've been connected to Singapore and look at the reality rather than the rhetoric."
-CNA/ac
SINGAPORE: The Workers' Party said its candidate Chen Show Mao has enough in terms of commitment and local connection, having attended schools here and done National Service as an Infantry Officer.
WP Chairman Sylvia Lim was responding to a forum letter from Education Minister and PAP Organising Secretary, Dr Ng Eng Hen - questioning Mr Chen's commitment and motivations.
She added that Mr Chen's parents have been here since 1972, and he has kept in touch with Singapore, coming back four to five times a year.
She said: "For example, he's serving on the SMU Law School advisory board. So since 2007, four years ago till now, he's been in touch with WP, our activities and also coming back and learning more about how he can contribute.
"He's also made known to the public that his wife and children will be moving back permanently to Singapore with him and that he intends to carry on his political work in Singapore regardless of the outcome of the GE."
Ms Lim also responded to the PAP's Ms Indranee Rajah's criticism on the WP's vision of a first world parliament.
"She mentioned that we said that our vision of a first world parliament is not modelled after any particular country and she finds it astonishing. But I am surprised that she finds it astonishing. The PAP itself has always claimed itself to be a first world government and I do not believe they claim to model themselves after any particular government of a developed country."
"In fact, they like to claim that they would be a model for others to follow. So similarly for (the) Workers' Party, our vision of a first world parliament, we've explained in detail, is one where we have (a) opposition party performing a robust check function in the house itself.
"And it doesn't have to be similar to any other country's parliament, so long as it works for Singapore and it is effective for accountability. I think that's the most important thing."
Ms Lim added that the Workers' Party has always said it puts national interest before the party's.
"I mean Ms Rajah mentions that she doesn't think it's possible for any opposition party to act other than in their own party's interest. But let's not forget that the People's Action Party was once an opposition before, so is she saying that at that time, the PAP also did not act in the national interest?"
When asked about the timing of the letters from the PAP, she said: "I think they are looking towards the campaign and perhaps how Singaporeans might support the Workers' Party or otherwise. So they would want to shape public opinion in their own fashion.
"But I think it's important for Singaporeans to look at the facts and look at our candidates in terms of what they have been doing and how they've been connected to Singapore and look at the reality rather than the rhetoric."
-CNA/ac
WP visits residents on Pulau Ubin
From Gerald Giam’s blog:
Fazli, myself and a few friends and supporters visited Pulau Ubin on Saturday. According to residents on the island, there are only about 30 or so families left there. Despite this, we decided that since Ubin falls within the boundaries of East Coast GRC, it would be important to pay a visit to the island to meet the residents there. After all, every resident counts.
We were glad we made the trip. It was our first trip there wearing Workers’ Party uniforms, although our predecessors in the 2006 Elections also paid a visit to the island then.
Read more on Gerald Giam’s blog.
Visit the Workers’ Party Facebook page for more pictures.
http://www.sammyboy.com/showthread....p-build-strong-opposition&p=701216#post701216
From Gerald Giam’s blog:
Fazli, myself and a few friends and supporters visited Pulau Ubin on Saturday. According to residents on the island, there are only about 30 or so families left there. Despite this, we decided that since Ubin falls within the boundaries of East Coast GRC, it would be important to pay a visit to the island to meet the residents there. After all, every resident counts.
We were glad we made the trip. It was our first trip there wearing Workers’ Party uniforms, although our predecessors in the 2006 Elections also paid a visit to the island then.
Read more on Gerald Giam’s blog.
Visit the Workers’ Party Facebook page for more pictures.
http://www.sammyboy.com/showthread....p-build-strong-opposition&p=701216#post701216
Howard Lee/
And so it begins. Lacking the reasonable position to call into doubt the quality of opposition candidates, the ruling People’s Action Party has resorted once again to slime-balling.
In 1997, the target was Tang Liang Hong, allegedly a Chinese chauvinist. In 2006, James Gomez allegedly dishonest. And now, on the same day when nomination day for the 2011 elections were announced, we read in the national broadsheet that similar shadows have been cast on Chen Show Mao, by far the most qualified candidate from the private sector to be contesting on the Workers’ Party’s (WP) ticket.
“From available information, Mr Chen has spent 40 of his 50 years out of Singapore… He now turns up and asks Singaporeans to elect him as a Member of Parliament. Surely, voters have a right to know from the Workers’ Party if such a candidate can identify with the aspirations of Singaporeans and has a stake in our future?”
- Dr Ng Eng Hen, Organising Secretary (Special Duties), People’s Action Party
I can be accepting about the Straits Times’ forum writers asking for Chen to justify his intentions. Indeed, they have the right to know more about the candidates they wish to vote for.
I can even be ambivalent of ST’s institutional amnesia, for whatever editorial constraints they might have. One moment, they clearly quoted Chen about his affinity with Singapore, and the next, published not just a full article of Ng comments and the WP’s refusal to comment, but also the verbatim of Ng’s letter in the same issue. No back reference, just a carry-through of Ng’s statement that WP has “brushed it aside”. But let’s just let that slip for the moment.
Conversely, I find myself grossly offended by the antics of the PAP in yet another attempt at character assault on formidable opponents. All these years, we have voted into power a party that has never been able to fend off the best fielded candidate in elections without resorting to character assault, questioning their motives, social labeling, and name calling, when there is no justifiable need to. I know politics is dirty, but to do this repeatedly is really becoming shameless, and for the electorate, tiring.
As such, consider this article a firm plea to the PAP to cease proceeding further down this route of baseless and irritating character assault on Chen, for the following reasons and the good of public interest:
It reflects hypocrisy of two key policies that have only recently been highlighted as important to our national fabric – the value of National Service, and the positive integration of new citizens. Eat your own dog food, and if you expect Singaporeans to swallow it whole, do it yourself and take it (i.e. commitment to nation) with a pinch of salt.
It is an insult to every Singaporean son who have served NS, and every new citizen who is genuine about and committed to making Singapore their home. Such accusations basically attempt to say no amount of sweating (in the former) and swearing (in the later) means much for your citizenship – everyone effectively needs to publicly declare their loyalty and allegiance to the country, or so help them God, before they can, well, do anything that remotely requires your commitment and patriotism.
We have seen this in the case of Gomez in 2007, where the swing of votes to WP was attributed to sympathy for Gomez and the ground perception that PAP was bullying him. A retarded excuse for the PAP to gain the moral high ground, when there could really be a case of the opposite (i.e. the framing of Gomez’s personality helped to sway votes back towards the PAP) or a real ground preference for WP.
Asking citizens to follow this line of reasoning is absolutely ridiculous and counter-productive to the election process. Compared to suspicions cast on a candidate’s ability which can be quantified and measured against other candidates (e.g. years of life experience), this train of thought borders on questioning a candidate’s loyalty to the nation, which is near impossible to prove without a credible lie-detector test, and only confuses the electorate. If we begin to question loyalty, should we also not do the same for all candidates from all parties? If the willingness to serve is already a plus, would not contesting in an opposition camp, where the odds of winning are lower, speak more of dedication to cause than if a candidate aligns with the ruling party with a better chance of winning? Should we then give opposition candidates “bonus points” for loyalty? Seriously, can it even be quantified that way?
I have a healthy respect for Ng as a public officer, particularly his years in the education ministry. But even if we give this blatant misuse of the media the benefit of the doubt and dismiss it as off-beat comments made in the heat of electioneering (technically not true, since we have yet to even get into polling week), such comments do not portray Ng positively as a man of logic and reason. It should not be oblivious to Singaporeans, so he should begin worrying for his seat.
At the end of the day, if the PAP is thinking they will be third time lucky, think again. Seriously, voters might be confused, but we are not daft. This has gone on long enough, and it is time we focus on the election issues, not the election personalities.
Interesting tidbits (call it coincidental):
Tang, Gomez and Chen were all candidates of WP.
All three were established professionals with good educational backgrounds, and none were from the public sector – criteria that the PAP is still struggling with today.
The character assaults all took place when WP was contesting in “hot seats” that ended with close margins – Cheng San GRC for Tang, and Aljunied GRC for Gomez and potentially Chen.
The writer completed his thesis using the media misrepresentation of Tang Liang Hong as a case study, and has closely followed the “James Gomez saga” in 2007. Whack his opinions, but try not to muck-rake his background research.
And so it begins. Lacking the reasonable position to call into doubt the quality of opposition candidates, the ruling People’s Action Party has resorted once again to slime-balling.
In 1997, the target was Tang Liang Hong, allegedly a Chinese chauvinist. In 2006, James Gomez allegedly dishonest. And now, on the same day when nomination day for the 2011 elections were announced, we read in the national broadsheet that similar shadows have been cast on Chen Show Mao, by far the most qualified candidate from the private sector to be contesting on the Workers’ Party’s (WP) ticket.
“From available information, Mr Chen has spent 40 of his 50 years out of Singapore… He now turns up and asks Singaporeans to elect him as a Member of Parliament. Surely, voters have a right to know from the Workers’ Party if such a candidate can identify with the aspirations of Singaporeans and has a stake in our future?”
- Dr Ng Eng Hen, Organising Secretary (Special Duties), People’s Action Party
I can be accepting about the Straits Times’ forum writers asking for Chen to justify his intentions. Indeed, they have the right to know more about the candidates they wish to vote for.
I can even be ambivalent of ST’s institutional amnesia, for whatever editorial constraints they might have. One moment, they clearly quoted Chen about his affinity with Singapore, and the next, published not just a full article of Ng comments and the WP’s refusal to comment, but also the verbatim of Ng’s letter in the same issue. No back reference, just a carry-through of Ng’s statement that WP has “brushed it aside”. But let’s just let that slip for the moment.
Conversely, I find myself grossly offended by the antics of the PAP in yet another attempt at character assault on formidable opponents. All these years, we have voted into power a party that has never been able to fend off the best fielded candidate in elections without resorting to character assault, questioning their motives, social labeling, and name calling, when there is no justifiable need to. I know politics is dirty, but to do this repeatedly is really becoming shameless, and for the electorate, tiring.
As such, consider this article a firm plea to the PAP to cease proceeding further down this route of baseless and irritating character assault on Chen, for the following reasons and the good of public interest:
It reflects hypocrisy of two key policies that have only recently been highlighted as important to our national fabric – the value of National Service, and the positive integration of new citizens. Eat your own dog food, and if you expect Singaporeans to swallow it whole, do it yourself and take it (i.e. commitment to nation) with a pinch of salt.
It is an insult to every Singaporean son who have served NS, and every new citizen who is genuine about and committed to making Singapore their home. Such accusations basically attempt to say no amount of sweating (in the former) and swearing (in the later) means much for your citizenship – everyone effectively needs to publicly declare their loyalty and allegiance to the country, or so help them God, before they can, well, do anything that remotely requires your commitment and patriotism.
We have seen this in the case of Gomez in 2007, where the swing of votes to WP was attributed to sympathy for Gomez and the ground perception that PAP was bullying him. A retarded excuse for the PAP to gain the moral high ground, when there could really be a case of the opposite (i.e. the framing of Gomez’s personality helped to sway votes back towards the PAP) or a real ground preference for WP.
Asking citizens to follow this line of reasoning is absolutely ridiculous and counter-productive to the election process. Compared to suspicions cast on a candidate’s ability which can be quantified and measured against other candidates (e.g. years of life experience), this train of thought borders on questioning a candidate’s loyalty to the nation, which is near impossible to prove without a credible lie-detector test, and only confuses the electorate. If we begin to question loyalty, should we also not do the same for all candidates from all parties? If the willingness to serve is already a plus, would not contesting in an opposition camp, where the odds of winning are lower, speak more of dedication to cause than if a candidate aligns with the ruling party with a better chance of winning? Should we then give opposition candidates “bonus points” for loyalty? Seriously, can it even be quantified that way?
I have a healthy respect for Ng as a public officer, particularly his years in the education ministry. But even if we give this blatant misuse of the media the benefit of the doubt and dismiss it as off-beat comments made in the heat of electioneering (technically not true, since we have yet to even get into polling week), such comments do not portray Ng positively as a man of logic and reason. It should not be oblivious to Singaporeans, so he should begin worrying for his seat.
At the end of the day, if the PAP is thinking they will be third time lucky, think again. Seriously, voters might be confused, but we are not daft. This has gone on long enough, and it is time we focus on the election issues, not the election personalities.
Interesting tidbits (call it coincidental):
Tang, Gomez and Chen were all candidates of WP.
All three were established professionals with good educational backgrounds, and none were from the public sector – criteria that the PAP is still struggling with today.
The character assaults all took place when WP was contesting in “hot seats” that ended with close margins – Cheng San GRC for Tang, and Aljunied GRC for Gomez and potentially Chen.
The writer completed his thesis using the media misrepresentation of Tang Liang Hong as a case study, and has closely followed the “James Gomez saga” in 2007. Whack his opinions, but try not to muck-rake his background research.
GE: WP introduces four election candidates
Posted: 20 April 2011 1558 hrs
Workers' Party
Photos 1 of 1
Workers' Party
SINGAPORE: The Workers' Party has unveiled four candidates at its first news conference to introduce its candidates contesting in the May 7 General Election.
They are WP deputy treasurer Lee Li Lian, CEC member Mohamed Faisal Abdul Manap, senior IT consultant Gerald Giam Yean Song and treasurer Eric Tan Heng Chong.
The party is expected to field about 20 candidates to contest four GRCs and four SMCs.
Posted: 20 April 2011 1558 hrs
Workers' Party
Photos 1 of 1
Workers' Party
SINGAPORE: The Workers' Party has unveiled four candidates at its first news conference to introduce its candidates contesting in the May 7 General Election.
They are WP deputy treasurer Lee Li Lian, CEC member Mohamed Faisal Abdul Manap, senior IT consultant Gerald Giam Yean Song and treasurer Eric Tan Heng Chong.
The party is expected to field about 20 candidates to contest four GRCs and four SMCs.
I strongly disagree that should be considered a FT. Singaporeans having an extended overseas exposure is generally good - in most instances.
Well, let's see how this Local Talent will perform.
Survivors of Sam's prev. Delphi forum and this forum would know that there are several groups of netizens here, a mix of:
1. Pro-Opposition, and/or
2. Pro-Singapore, and/or
3. Pro-PAP, and/or
4. Anti-Opposition, and/or
5. Anti-Singapore, and/or
6. Anti-PAP, and/or
7. None of the above.
That's how sophisticated this forum (acknowledgement to the host) is in comparison to others such as VR-Zone, fuckwarezone, etc.
Occasionally, you do get to discover original thoughts that you cannot find elsewhere
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